By DAWN HANKINS - dhankins@t-g.com
Out of lessons about “philanthropy,” and efforts put into a “Common Cents Jar,” local Girl Scout Troop 2794 has created non perishable meals for those in need during Thanksgiving and beyond.
Collectively, they brought in over $200 in spare change for their Common Cents Jar. With the decision being there’s to decide how they wanted to give back to their community, the troop decided to buy goods for all 16 Blessing Boxes spread around Bedford County.
Blessing Boxes began as a way to help those in need, but make it convenient too. Over the last couple of years, the boxes have expanded to all areas of Bedford County (see Blessing Boxes of Bedford County Facebook pg.)
To plan their delivery, Tropp 2794 had what else but a pajama party. Instead of having pillow fights, they evenly sorted their goods for the Blessing Boxes.
Last Monday, they traveled to the Blessing Boxes and stuffed them full of non perishable items, like toothpaste, mac and cheese and canned goods.
Troop leader Barbara Gasser said today that they chose a day of their Thanksgiving break to help others. Needless-to-say, she’s pretty proud of them.
Girl Scout Troop 2794 was started in September of 2021. Barbara Gasser is troop leader and co-leader is Erin Adkins.
They started out as a Brownie troop.
“Our Troop crest is the Pansy. It means special friendships and loving thoughts,” shared Barbara. “Last Cookie Season, we taught the girls about philanthropy. We started the Common Cents jars so that they could start collecting spare change donations to use as they choose for philanthropy events. We let the girls decide how they want to give back to the community.”
This school year, the troop became a multilevel troop of Brownies and Juniors. The girls named their Troop “Shelbyville Pansy Patronus” Troop 2794. “We immediately taught the new girls Philanthropy and had them make their own Common Cents” jars.”
The girls who helped sort were: Alice Keown, Ellie Mantooth, Essence Hickmon, Olivia Gossar, Patience Holbert, and Colbie Cook. The parents and grandparents who helped sort were Barbara Gossar, Donald Gossar, Erin Adkins, Sabrina Keown, Anita Holbert, and Sandra Lord.
The girls who were able to go around stuffing the Blessing Boxes on Monday were Essence Hickmon, Ellie Mantooth, Alice Keown and Olivia Gossar. The parents who helped were Barbara Gossar, Sabrina Keown, and Jay Mantooth.
“Our plans are to continue serving the community by continuing the “Common Cents “ jars,” said Barbara. “ This will be our Troop’s philanthropy project going forward. We pledge to the community that we will continue to provide for the Blessing boxes as we can.”
She reminded that “cookie season” starts here in mid December. “This year, we will be using a portion of our proceeds to go to the Blessing Boxes and will also give a monetary donation to the Shelbyville Community Soup Kitchen on South Cannon Boulevard.”
In the spring, the troop is planning to have a large garden, “We hope to harvest a lot to give to the boxes and donate to the soup kitchen.”
She added, “I can honestly say that Erin and I have a troop based on sisterhood and compassion for others. All the girls treat each other like a sister. We always give them the opportunity to tell us what community service event we will do next. So it is our very compassionate girls who choose what to do for our community. We always want to spread love wherever we can.” We have taught the girls to never look down, unless you are helping that person up.”
See more photos of Troop 2794 inside today’s edition.
